1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a patient monitoring system and more particularly to a patient monitoring system for monitoring various physiological characteristic data of a patient, such as blood pressure, pulse rate, blood glucose, weight and others, which wirelessly transmits such data to a hub, located near the patient, which, in turn transfers the data automatically to a remote server, for example, over a public or private communications network, which, in one embodiment, the remote server is configured as a web portal which selectively allows access to patient data by selected third party users, such as physicians, clinicians, patients, and/or relatives, and, in addition provides increased functionality relative to known systems by enabling trends of the patient data to be developed as well as automatically generate communications with the patient or other third parties by way of e-mail or pager when predetermined thresholds for selected physiological characteristics are exceeded and/or to remind the patient to take physiological measurements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Healthcare costs have been increasing at a tremendous rate for the past decade, far exceeding the rate of inflation. The compound average growth rate for healthcare spending over the past decade was 6%, amounting to nearly $1.3 trillion in the year 2001. Chronic disease patients, whose numbers have doubled during the same decade, account for nearly $700 billion of this spending. Managed care organizations have begun to seek help from disease management companies to contain the spending on chronic diseases. Disease management companies thus have developed systems to monitor the chronically ill patients and help lower healthcare spending by improving patient compliance to medication schedules thereby lowering the hospitalization rates.
Various types of patient monitoring systems are known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,810,747 and 5,694,940 disclose patient monitoring systems in which the patient monitoring devices are hard wired to a local hub, which, in turn, is connected to a remote station, for example, over a communication network. The fact that the patient monitors are hard wired to the local station significantly reduces the utility of such systems. For example, such systems are obviously not suitable for ambulatory patients and many applications where it may be desired to remotely monitor the physiological characteristics of a patient outside of a non-clinical environment.
Accordingly, various systems have been developed in which the patient monitoring device, normally worn by a patient, is connected by way of a wireless link to a local hub, which, in turn, is connected to a remote station or server by way of a public communication network, such as the plain old telephone system (POTS). Examples of such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,882,277; 5,522,396; and 6,093,146. Each of these systems include a patient monitoring device, connected to a local hub by way of a wireless link, which, in turn, is connected to a remote server by way of a public communication link, such as POTS. Such systems depend on the use of telephone modems which require patients to place a phone receiver into a modem cradle and dial up the remote server. Such systems have been found to be far too complicated and difficult for elderly and critically ill patients.
In order to resolve this problem, patient monitoring systems, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,336,900, have been developed, which not only provide a wireless link between the patient monitor and the local hub, but also automatically dial and connect to the remote server to facilitate the transfer of the physiological data to the remote server. Unfortunately, the functional capability of such systems is relatively limited. For example, such systems only provide limited access to the patient data. In addition, such systems can not be used to provide reminders to patients to take readings or provide messages to the patients or third parties when the physiological characteristics of a patient exceed predetermined thresholds. Thus, there is a need for a patient monitoring system for monitoring the physiological characteristics of a patient that provides enhanced functionality and expanded access to the healthcare data while not tethering the patient to a local hub, thereby improving patient compliance, affording the healthcare provider the ability to capture adverse events sooner and avoid costly emergency care and reduce costly home health visits.